CHENNAI: We The Leaders founder and chief servant K Annamalai on Tuesday accused the BJP-led Centre of making a U-turn on Karnataka's right to build structures across the Cauvery, alleging that Tamil Nadu farmers' interests were being sacrificed for electoral considerations in the neighbouring State.
"The rights of the farmers of Tamil Nadu have been discarded from consideration by the BJP-led central government for electoral gains in Karnataka," Annamalai said in a statement.
Contrasting the statement with the Centre's earlier stand, he cited then Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat's statement in Parliament on August 5, 2021. Shekhawat, Annamalai said, had stated that Karnataka's permission to prepare a Detailed Project Report was conditional and that consent of lower riparian States was mandatory under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act for constructing a dam across an inter-State river.
"Why is the Central Government now suddenly making a U-turn on the position it had already taken?" Annamalai asked.
He urged the Centre not to take the people of Tamil Nadu for granted or unnecessarily strain the brotherly relationship between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.